Recommended Summer Reading - Leigh Stein

During the month of June, No Tells is featuring "Recommended Summer Reading" selections by No Tell contributors.


Leigh Stein's recommendations:

The French Exit by Elisa Gabbert (Birds, LLC)
"When a car almost hits you / you actually scream; it's embarrassing. / Unless you die instantly." Dudes, birds, and boredom. I would like to go to the beach with Elisa and make her sing the greatest hits of the '90s to me.

I Is to Vorticism by Ben Mirov (New Michigan Press)
"The camels were parked in the moonlight, ready for whatever. Janice and I were mostly naked by the smoldering fire, though, as I unfastened the bolts that held my face intact, she stopped me. No need to ruin things yet, she whispered..." Ben is a character in these poems. So is Murakami. I would like to go to Applebee's with Ben and eat appetizers.

The Haunted House by Marisa Crawford (Switchback Books)
"Dear Libby, there's months and months of getting ready, / and then there's the prom. And there's the post-prom." This book is haunted by girlhood. I would like to go on a cross-country road trip in a convertible with Marisa. We'll listen to old mix tapes.

* * *

Leigh Stein is the author of the chapbooks How to Mend a Broken Heart with Vengeance (Dancing Girl Press), Least Inhabited Island II (h-ngm-n), and Summer in Paris (Mondo Bummer). She lives in Brooklyn.